Cyber Security Services Now Protecting Collaborative Operations Centres

Cyber security services for deployment within the AbilityTM Platform help protect Collaborative Operations Centres from cyber threats.

A series of cyber security services that support the entire infrastructure of an ABB AbilityTM Collaborative Operations Center is available from ABB. Collaborative Operations connects people in production facilities, headquarters, and at ABB by giving them the right information to make businesses more profitable. Such an approach helps improve asset availability and operational efficiency.

Asset and operational information is collected and analysed round-the-clock at Collaborative Operations Centres to identify, categorise and prioritise actions. A Collaborative Operations Center digitally connects ABB customers with its experts worldwide. These centres let ABB see all customer sites, along with a case management system that identifies critical assets in need of urgent attention.

By tapping into ABB’s domain knowledge and experts through the collaborative operations centres, customers can identify the root cause of problems extremely efficiently. Not only that, at headquarters executives can easily access plant performance at the enterprise level to assess efficiency and production issues.

Critical to the success of these centres is the level of protection against cyber threats. To counter such threats, ABB is deploying its suite of cyber security services to strengthen the ABB AbilityTM platform. Services include:

• Security patch management – Operating systems and embedded software often need to be patched to defend against emerging threats. Efficient patch management is an essential part of any security policy, but one that is often neglected.
• Malware protection management – Systems can be equipped with industry-standard malware and intrusion protection solutions, like anti-virus protection and application whitelisting.
• Users and access management – Implementing user accounts and access rights is the recommended mechanism to enforce the principle of least privilege on the user level. Defining user access rights and user policies, are all important measures.
• Security assessments – Assessment and monitoring services for system software, system hardware and communication networks are fundamental in order to keep a system constantly secure. Overseeing the cyber security status of your system, ABB’s collects system data for comparison against industry best practices and standards to detect weaknesses within your system’s defence. This pinpoints areas that require action to help protect your system by ensuring it has multiple layers of security.
• ServicePort security monitoring – Identifies, classifies and helps prioritise opportunities to improve the security of your control system. Overseeing the cyber security status of your control system, the service collects system data for comparison against industry best practices and standards to detect weaknesses within a system’s defence. This pinpoints areas that require action to help protect your control system by ensuring it has multiple layers of security.
• System hardening – Modern operating systems and embedded software often need to be patched to defend against emerging threats. Efficient patch management is an essential part of any security policy, but one that is often neglected. Products can be made significantly more robust by closing ports and services that are not in use. ABB’s industrial control systems are systematically hardened to ensure that the products are robust against attacks and perform their main function.
• Cyber asset management – A detailed analysis of existing systems and possible points of weakness. The assessment brings ABB experts to the customer site, to interview staff and inspect equipment and assess procedures in use. That process takes a few days, and is followed by several days of analysis to build a comprehensive assessment of the existing configuration.
• Backup and recovery management – If the worst does happen, and cyber-attack or natural disaster strikes, then the security of an off-site back-up will make recovery that much easier. ABB’s back-up solutions can ensure the integrity, and availability, of critical data, no matter what happens to the original.

Other services offered include network security management, cyber security management, threat intelligence and incident response. As new threats emerge and intrusions happen on a daily basis, continuous monitoring is fundamental in order to keep control systems constantly safe and secure.

ABB’s security information and event management platform continually monitors a control system and helps secure operations with actionable intelligence.